Just Blaze

The Top 20 NYC Rap Albums of All Time: The Complete List

Any list of the Greatest New York Rap Albums of All Time is, essentially, a list of simply the Greatest Rap Albums of All Time. The genre was invented here, after all, and over the years -- from early days to Golden Age and onward-- the city's hip-hop history has been an embarrassment of riches. Fas ... More >>

The Top 20 NYC Rap Albums of All Time: 10 - 1

Any list of the Greatest New York Rap Albums of All Time is, essentially, a list of simply the Greatest Rap Albums of All Time. The genre was invented here, after all, and over the years -- from early days to Golden Age and onward-- the city's hip-hop history has been an embarrassment of riches. Fas ... More >>

Lil Wayne, Future, and the Ouroboros of Defensive Trendhumpery

If you pay attention to the Rap Internet, you are probably up to your elbows in people slinging the term "Appropriation" around, mostly in the context of the Harlem Shake meme. Even more loosely, people have been talking about what the idea of "ownership" in hip-hop actually, like, means these days. ... More >>

Defend Your Ballot: Luis Paez-Pumar, Pazz and Jop 2012 Contributor

You can't really know where you're headed unless you know where you've been. For that reason, we're taking a look back at Pazz & Jop 2012 to drill down into the ballots of contributors and voters who participated. Maybe amongst the rubble we'll find clues about what lies ahead for music lovers in 20 ... More >>

Pusha T on the Grammy Committee: "They Can't Deny Good Hip-Hop Anymore"

Clipse's Pusha T raps a lot about drug dealing and the spoils that go with it. (His name is Pusha, after all.) You no doubt know that by now. It's why Pusha Ton is naming his upcoming album My Name Is My Name. But before that shipment arrives he's doling out samples in the form of his mixtape Wrath ... More >>

The Rub Turns 10: Memories From A Decade-Long Party

The Brooklyn collective of DJ Ayres, DJ Eleven, and Cosmo Baker celebrate the 10-year anniversary of their now-legendary rap party The Rub this weekend. While their monthly rager moved from the now-shuttered Park Slope club Southpaw to Gowanus' much larger Bell House, the party remains a house-party ... More >>

Live: Cam'ron Throws A Homecoming Party At The Well

Cam'ron w/Flatbush Zombies, Asaad, Reese The Well Saturday, July 14 Better than: The Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival. Mark July 14 on your calendar as another historic date in New York hip-hop's current growth spurt. On this day, people from all corners of the city gathered in a semi-legal warehouse yar ... More >>

Q&A: Show & AG On The Bronx, Watching Grandmaster Flash Back In The Day, And Stereotypes In Hip-Hop

The good thing about family is you don't have to see them all the time to still feel the love when you do reconnect. Last year, Show & AG's hard-hitting "Show &A"—the first joint venture from the Diggin' In The Crates members since 1998's Full Scale—showed that the duo is reinvigorated a ... More >>

Kool Herc Gets Honored; Niagara Bar Lets Loose

Kool Herc's Birthday/Sutra; Normalized Dance Night/Niagara Bar Thursday, April 26 Better than: Reading about how NYC's nightlife is dead. Last month, in the spirit of March Madness, SOTC created a tournament with the aim of crowning the quintessential New York musician. Popularly dubbed the Godfat ... More >>

Radio Hits One: Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, And Other Urban Radio Staples Turn To Clappers

Lately, when I turn on a hip-hop station, I feel like I'm being applauded, and I don't always feel like returning the favor. I'm not referring just to the default use of handclaps (sampled or, more likely, emulated by drum machines) as snare drums in beats, which has been a common practice and has b ... More >>

Q&A: DJ Rob Swift Looks Back On His Work With The Late Roc Raida

Back in the early '90s, the DJs Rob Swift and Roc Raida would take the subway to each other's cribs and engage in seven-hour practice sessions. Raida's apartment, up in Harlem, was decorated with posters of rap acts Ice Cube, Kid 'N' Play and MC Lyte; Swift's bedroom in Queens showcased inspirationa ... More >>

Sound Of The City's March Madness Begins With An Uptown Faceoff Between Diddy (4) And Dipset (13)

The Round of 64 for Sound of the City's own version of March Madness—in which we determine the quintessential New York musician—launches this morning with a series of polls. Up first: Harlem's quintessential hip-hop cadre, Dipset, takes on the genre's megamogul, Diddy. Check out the argu ... More >>

Drake Takes Center Stage On Take Care

​"That was back in the days, Acura days," Drake raps at the end of both verses of "Under Ground Kings." It's half of one of the most revealing couplets of Take Care, his masterful second album, and it's a callback to his come-up, a transition in roles from Degrassi's Jimmy Brooks to a promisin ... More >>

Top 10 New Hardcore-Rap Classics Brought To You By Siccness.net

​I first noticed Siccness.net in 2009, when they released Beanie Sigel's street album, The Broad Street Bully. The label name struck me as profoundly dubious, like one of those shell companies that distribute illegal mixtapes to online retail stores only to magically dissolve the minute rights ... More >>

Download a Two-Part Tribute To Underappreciated Jay-Z Sidekick Memphis Bleek

Bleek, doing what he does best. Photo via MySpace​He's probably the best rap hypeman ever to do it, short of maybe Flavor Flav. He's clearly a loyal and self-deprecating friend. He puts more talented people's interests above his own, always. And yet, no one cares. Jay-Z and Memphis Bleek met i ... More >>

It's the Real and the Rise of the Rap Nerd

Why this duo's white, Jewish comedy-rap is funnier than you think

Download This Mannie Fresh Mix, As Pregame For His Santos Party House Show Tonight

​It's been a tumultuous few weeks for Santos Party House, but the downtown spot is back in action, and finally welcoming back perhaps its finest weekly attraction: reOPENed, the Friday night fete hosted by Just Blaze and DJ Soul. To celebrate their rebirth, they'll be welcoming a special guest ... More >>

The Five Best Things Lil B Raps Over on His Great New Mixtape, Red Flame

​If you've looked at the incredibly prolific, California-based rapper Lil B's twitter at any point over the past few days, you know that he's just released a new mixtape, Red Flame. B, of course, is heralding it as the greatest of all time. After a couple listens, this seems to be a bit of an ... More >>

How A Village Voice Reporter Helped Write the Second Verse of Jay-Z's "Public Service Announcement"

​In 2003, this paper sent the writer Elizabeth Mendez Berry to profile Jay-Z on the eve of the release of what was then supposed to be his retirement record, The Black Album. Toward the end of the piece, which was published almost exactly seven years ago, Berry transcribes an interaction she h ... More >>

Detroit Producer Black Milk's Top Ten Albums Of the Last Decade

​"I don't hear anything else out there like my record." So says a confident Black Milk, the Detroit hip-hop producer who's struck 2010's boldest titular move to date by electing to call his fifth solo project Album Of The Year (out today). With his gritty-yet-soulful beats, Black Milk is often ... More >>

Jay-Z's Ten Most Shameful Rock and Roll Moments

​Yesterday, it was announced that Jay-Z would be joining U2 on the band's five-date tour of Australia come November. It makes sense: in addition to commingling at the top of the Forbes 2010 Music Earners List, Jay-Z and U2 have performed together before--more than once, in fact. (Never forget ... More >>

Freddie Gibbs Would Like His Money Now

The Internet's hottest rapper is about to find out if that means anything

Who Is Fabolous?

On a constantly-on-the-brink Brooklyn rapper and perils of undersharing

A Running Diary of Hip-Hop Superfest Rock the Bells

The exquisite joys of a sunny Sunday afternoon on the LIRR, Mos Def's basketball uniform, and De La Soul's late-'80s nostalgia

Picking Apart Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III, Part 1

Fat Joe vs. the Volcano

He's joined forces with the South, whether you like it or not

Freeway's Free at Last: A Preview

Hova's Slight Return

Jay-Z's aura finally outshines his art—what a drag it is getting old

A Rap Beef Roundup

Obey Your Corporate Sponsor

Sprite hosts streetwear brands in fashion show; brings in Kanye and Missy

Crown Royal

T.I. reigns, but leaves the best lines for his subjects

50 Cent and Jay-Z are Friends Now

Jay-Z Signs Nas to Def Jam

The Quarterly Report: Status Ain't Hood's Favorite Albums Since July

Bronx Bomber With Cracked Rear View Ignores Art, Trips Over Big Pun's Torch

DJ Kicks

Nine sane and rewarding life choices we promise you will not get punished by God for

Blame It On Band Camp

The Benz or the Backpack?

Caught between underground should and overground can

Bring the Pain

Mixtape Go-To Guy Raises His Issues

New Thugs on the Block

Next-Big-Thing Rappers Arrive With Wheeze, Breeze, and Cheese

Kings of New York